Zanele Muholi in Trouw
In an interview by Arjan Visser for Trouw, one of the Netherlands’ leading newspapers, photographer and visual activist Zanele Muholi, who recently received the Hasselblad Award, speaks about faith, family and activism. Structured around the Ten Commandments, the conversation moves between deeply personal memories and broader reflections on identity, discrimination, spirituality and social responsibility.
Muholi also looks back on more than twenty years of documenting the LGBTQIA+ community, including the ongoing portrait series Faces and Phases, begun in 2006. Throughout the interview, photography emerges not simply as an artistic medium, but as a way of recording lives, experiences and histories that might otherwise remain unseen. As Muholi explains: “I don’t see it as an art form, but as a view on life itself. Every photograph is someone’s biography.”
The conversation also touches on the experiences that have shaped Muholi’s perspective and practice, and on the importance of visibility, dignity and creating space for people whose stories have historically been overlooked.
The interview was published on 2 October 2026.
FULL ARTICLEABOUT Zanele Muholi
Zanele Muholi (b. 1972, Umlazi, Durban) is an internationally recognized visual activist and photographer, known for a body of work that documents and celebrates the lives of South Africa’s Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex communities. Since 2006, Muholi’s practice has grown into one of the most significant visual archives of Black LGBTQIA+ life anywhere in the world.
Muholi studied photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg and earned an MFA in Documentary Media from Ryerson University, Toronto. Muholi has received major honors including the ICP Infinity Award (2016), the Carnegie Fine Prize (2013), and a Prince Claus Award (2013). Their work has been shown at Documenta 13, the Venice Biennale, and the São Paulo Biennale, and is held in leading collections such as MoMA, Tate Modern, and the Guggenheim.
